


Old Habits

by paperjamBipper



Series: Memory Lane [10]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Sleepwalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25275142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperjamBipper/pseuds/paperjamBipper
Summary: Ever since he was a little kid, Ford's had a habit of sleepwalking when he got too stressed. Ever since Stan was a little kid, he's had a habit of waking up in the middle of the night and being forced to retrieve his brother before he hurts himself.
Relationships: Ford Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Ford Pines & Stan Pines, Mabel Pines & Stan Pines
Series: Memory Lane [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830763
Comments: 1
Kudos: 59





	Old Habits

The Stan O’ War II rocks violently as a creature of unimaginable horror attempts to climb aboard to attack Stan. He stands his ground firmly, stomping his feet down to keep his balance on the ground.

“Yeah, is that all you got? I saw worse things than you in the high school locker room!” He shouts, unzipping his coat and throwing it down on the ground. “You’re gonna have to try a lot harder than that to get to _my_ brother! Come at me!” He shouts, sprinting from one side of the boat towards the monster on the other. Before he can jump out of the boat and jump on the monster’s back, however, Ford comes running out of his workroom and throws himself in front of Stan.

“Stan! Are you _insane?_ You can’t just go jumping on any monster you like!” Ford says, gesturing up to the monster. “Do you have any idea what that thing can do to you? You could get seriously hurt! Or worse! You could get-”

All of a sudden, the creature reaches one of its large tentacles down and wraps it completely around Ford, covering his mouth and muffling the rest of his sentence.

“Ford!” Stan shouts as his brother is lifted hundreds of feet in the air. Stan watches in fear for a moment, but then it quickly turns into raging anger. He grinds his teeth together.

“No! Nothing in the universe is gonna take my brother away from me! Not again!” Stan sprints into Ford’s workroom, and drops onto his hands and knees, feeling around for something he can use on the monster.

“Aha!” Stan says when he finds Ford’s crossbow under his work desk. He sets it up, and rushes outside. He takes aim at the monster, still gripping Ford in its tentacle.

“I warned you! He shouts, and shoots at the monster.

Bingo. The crossbow hits it right in the eye, and the monster lets out a horrifying screech and drops Ford.

“I got you!” Stan shouts, and sloppily tosses his lifejacket on before leaning his arms out over the boat to catch his brother. Ford lands right in his arms, but the weight of both men is so heavy that he falls overboard.

“You saved me!” Ford says when Stan resurfaces from under the water. “You’re my hero! Th-”

A sudden thump from the other room causes Stan to jump up in bed. He places his glasses on, and walks to his bedroom door.

“Hello?” Stan asks, squinting as he looks around at the other rooms in the hallway. “Hello?” He repeats, and he turns around to go back to bed when nobody responds. Before he closes it all the way, however, he hears heavy footsteps walking towards the living room.

“Ford?” He asks quietly, pushing his bedroom door the rest of the way open. He adjusts his glasses and exits his bedroom, closing the door behind him. “Ford, what are you doing up?” He asks as he follows the source of the sound.

The click of a light switch catches Stan’s attention, and he walks around looking for the room it came from until he finds himself in Ford’s workroom. Ford, however, is nowhere to be found. Stan steps outside the door, and looks around. Sure enough, he sees Ford walking towards the room with his journal in his hand.

Stan sighs, and walks out to meet him. “Ford, come on. It’s too late for this” He says, and swipes the book away from Ford in an easier manner than he expected to.

“Stanley?” Ford asks suddenly, not even aware that his book isn’t in his hands anymore.

“Ford?” Stan asks in confusion, and Ford turns his head from side to side. 

“Stanley, is that you?”

Stan stares at his brother in confusion for a moment, but when realization hits him he can’t help but laugh.

“I’m right here, Ford.”

“Stanley! I thought that was you” Ford says, and reaches out to touch Stan’s face.

“Can you do me a favor?” Stan asks, and holds up two fingers right in front of Ford’s face. “Tell me how many fingers I’m holding up”

“Six” Ford says without taking a minute to process what he had actually said.

Stan chuckles. Ford is sleepwalking. This is something he had done a lot when he was younger, especially when he was in high school. The more homework and tests Ford had, the more he sleepwalked. When he started talking as well, that’s when you could tell he was really stressing out over it.

When they were younger, Stan used to always get out of bed to go retrieve Ford when he sleepwalked. The last thing either of them wanted was to wake up their parents, so if Stan were to wake up and hear Ford walking towards their parents’ room he could get him back in bed before he woke either of them up.

He obviously doesn’t need to do it anymore, but old habits die hard. Stan smiles. He takes Ford by the hand, and first leads him to his workroom so he can place the journal down on the table. He then throws his arm around Ford, and makes his way towards Ford’s bedroom.

When he hears more footsteps walking through the hall, he pauses to make sure it isn’t his or Ford’s. He hears a door close, and after waiting a few seconds he begins to walk again. He hears the door fly open sooner than he expects, and he screeches to a stop and yelps in surprise as Mabel steps out of the bathroom wiping her mouth with her sleeve.

“Mabel?” Stan whispers, and she yawns as she looks at him

“Hi Grunkle Stan, I was just getting a drink of water. Did I wake you?” She says, but before Stan can answer, it processes in her mind that Stan has his arm around Ford.

“Awww!!” She squeals. “You two are so cuutee!!!” She says, and Stan brings a finger to his mouth.

“Shh, Ford’s asleep. He was sleepwalkin’ and I’m trying to get him back in his bed so it doesn’t happen again.” He pauses to rub his free hand through his hair. “Except…He doesn’t really have a bed. So I don’t know how sending him back to his room could prevent him from walking out again”

“Hm…” Mabel says, bringing her index finger and her thumb to her chin. “Oh! I know what we can do!” She whispers loudly. “We can make him a pillow fort in the living room. That way, if he wakes up and tries to stand up, it’ll collapse on him. He’ll have to wake up then!”

Stan laughs. “Alright, if you say so”

Mabel leads Stan into the living room, and Stan carefully leans Ford on the wall as Mabel sets it up. She pushes Stan’s chair forward as hard as she can, and when it’s where she wants, she smiles and runs into the dining room and grabs one of the chairs from the table, and then a second one. She sets them up in a wide triangle, and then runs into Ford’s bedroom. She comes back with his pillow and blanket in her hand, and places them carefully in the center of the triangle.

“Hm…” She says, backing up to stand next to Stan. “Something’s missing up there” She says, gesturing to the tops of the chairs.

“Hm…” Stan says, looking around as well. When his eye catches on to Ford still leaning on the wall, he smiles.

“Why don’t we just use the blanket from his room on top of the fort? I’m sure he won’t mind using his trench coat as a blanket.”

“Okay!” Mabel says, and Stan walks back over to Ford and lifts him off the wall carefully. Stan again places his arm around Ford, and slowly walks him towards Mabel’s makeshift pillow fort. Once in the center of the fort, Stan gently removes Ford’s trench coat and helps him onto the ground, placing Ford’s head on the pillow as gently as he can. Stan then lays Ford’s trench coat on top of him like a blanket, and backs away as Mabel places the other blanket on top of Stan’s recliner, the two dining room chairs, and over the side of them.

“Well, I think our job here is done” Stan says rubbing his hands together as he turns to Mabel. “I think we should probably head back to bed now. Goodnight!” He says.

“Goodnight Grunkle Stan!” She says, and the two of them part ways as they head back to their own bedrooms.

–

The next morning, Ford is awoken by the sounds and smell of someone cooking in the kitchen. He opens his eyes and sits up, stretching. He doesn’t immediately process where he is at first, but when his trench coat sloppily falls off of his shoulders he realizes he isn’t in his own bedroom. Confused, he slips his coat back on pushes the flap of the pillow fort aside so he can get out. He stands up and looks around, and finds himself in the middle of the living room and only finds himself more confused than before.

“Morning Sixer” Stan says, popping his head in from the kitchen. “How’d you sleep?” He asks, and the way Stan places his words together makes Ford suddenly realizes how he must have ended up on the living room floor.

He smiles. “Wonderful. Thank you, Stanley” he says, and San smiles as he heads back into the kitchen to refocus on what he was cooking.

And it was true. Ford really had slept wonderfully. Something about last night felt extremely comfortable and the easiest to sleep through in a long time and now Ford knew why.


End file.
